Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has devastated Russia’s clandestine special forces (Spetsnaz), according to classified US documents leaked online.
It is estimated that it will take Moscow years to restore its Spetsnaz units to their former strength, after they were sent to the front by Putin’s clumsy commanders to support their failing infantry.
The leak first became public knowledge about a week ago and put Washington on edge about the damage they may have done to Ukraine’s war effort. The episode embarrassed the US by revealing its spying allies and Kiev’s vulnerabilities.
But the revelations have also shown how deeply US spy networks have infiltrated the Kremlin’s own intelligence and military command structure.
And to add to the Kremlin’s embarrassment, the documents also provide a damning assessment of Russia’s own military capabilities.
Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has decimated Russia’s clandestine special forces (Spetsnaz), according to classified US documents leaked online. Pictured: Russian Spetsnaz march during the military parade on Red Square on May 9, 2021 in Moscow (file photo)
This photo, taken on Feb. 27, 2022, shows a Russian armored personnel carrier burning next to the body of an unknown soldier during a battle with Ukrainian forces in Kharkiv
The deployment of Spetsnaz units is usually reserved for low-profile, high-risk missions that require soldiers of considerable determination, skill, and relentlessness.
It is clear that in the early days of the war, such units were ordered – and failed – to penetrate the heart of Kiev and capture Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
For such missions, the units receive some of the most advanced training available to the Russian military, which takes years to complete – and a high level of expertise.
However, when Putin ordered his troops to cross the border in February 2022, Russia’s senior commanders ordered their elite forces into battle – not trusting their conventional fighters alone to be effective.
As a result, the units suffered heavy losses.
This is according to top-secret U.S. intelligence findings that emerged in the leak, which sparked a national security investigation that culminated in the arrest of Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old national guard, on Thursday.
One of the leaked documents, seen by the Washington Postshows before and after satellite images of a base used by the 22nd Separate Spetsnaz Brigade.
The footage from the base in southern Russia shows that “all but one of Russia’s separate Spetsnaz brigades returning from combat operations in Ukraine suffered significant casualties in late summer 2022,” The Post reports.
The satellite images show the base in November 2021, and again a year later. The earlier image shows a well-populated base full of vehicles, while the second one is much emptier — showing a state of extreme exhaustion, according to US intelligence.
According to the assessment, the 22nd Separate Spetsnaz Brigade and two other units have had an estimated 90 to 95 percent failure rate, says The Post.
It takes Russia four years to train a Spetsnaz soldier, according to documents seen by the US publication, which concludes that it could take Moscow up to a decade to replenish its ranks of these elite units.
The loss of experienced units will also be a major problem for the Russian armed forces, the document estimates.
While The Post says the documents do not indicate how many Spetsnaz troops were killed or wounded in Ukraine, according to the information, it reported that one unit alone – the 346th – lost almost the entire brigade. It said only 125 of the 900 deployed remained.
Rob Lee, a Russian military expert and senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told The Post that by pushing special forces to the front lines, Russian commanders have pierced them at an alarming rate.
The tactic was seen in the early days of the war when Moscow tried to capture Kiev, he told The Post, and in the eastern city of Kharkiv.
In Khariv, Lee told the publication, Spetsnaz troops arrived in small numbers and with little support. Many were killed or captured, he said, adding that a similar situation was seen in the southern city of Mariupol and in eastern Donbas.
The US documents say that the loss of special forces will have a domino effect. The Russian military will have lost the ability to train paramilitary groups, and will also mean that its special forces will be less effective in other parts of the world.
Pictured: Russian Spetsnaz fighters training in this file photo. The US estimates that it will take Moscow years to restore its Spetsnaz units to their previous strength after they were sent to the front lines in Ukraine.
Pictured: Russian Spetsnaz fighters training in this file photo. It takes Russia four years to train a Spetsnaz soldier, according to documents seen by the US publication, which concludes that it could take Moscow up to a decade to replenish its ranks of these elite units
The leak of documents, largely posted to social media sites, was considered the most serious security breach since more than 700,000 documents, videos and diplomatic cables appeared on the WikiLeaks website in 2010.
According to The New York Times, a “trail of digital evidence” pointed to Teixeira as the leader of the private group on Discord, called Thug Shaker Central, where the documents surfaced.
The embarrassing security breach has highlighted US concerns about the viability of an upcoming counter-offensive by Kyiv forces against Russian forces, as well as concerns about Ukraine’s air defenses, and pointed out that US allies, including Israel and South Korea.
President Joe Biden spoke about the leak earlier on Thursday during his visit to Ireland, saying he was “concerned.”
US media reported that the Biden administration is trying to strengthen its monitoring of social media sites and chat rooms after intelligence agencies failed to notice the leaked documents online for weeks.
The Pentagon has also “began restricting who within the government receives its highly classified daily intelligence briefings,” CNN reported Thursday.
The alleged leaker was reportedly nicknamed “OG” and regularly posted documents to the respective chat group for months.
The group of about 24 people, including some from Russia and Ukraine, bonded over their “mutual love of guns, military equipment and God” and formed a “welcoming clubhouse on Discord” in 2020, The Post reported – which like the Times named unidentified members of Thug Shaker Central.
OG told group members he “spent part of his day in a secure facility that banned cell phones and other electronic devices,” according to The Post’s report.
Russian paratroopers were filmed at Hostomel airbase on the first day of the invasion before being wiped out by Ukrainian forces in their doomed attempt to take the site. Pictured: Footage posted online claims at least eight Russian troops disembark from a helicopter at the air base on Feb. 24 in an attempt to seize it
He first wrote down the contents of classified documents to share with the group, but later began taking photos and telling other members not to share them, the paper reported.
OG took a “dark view of government” and “talked about the United States, and specifically law enforcement and the intelligence community, as a sinister force seeking to suppress and keep its citizens in the dark,” the Post said, under reference to one of the members of the group.
A Discord spokesperson told AFP news agency that user safety is a priority and content that violates policies could result in people being banned, servers shut down and police being alerted.
“With regard to the apparent violation of classified material, we are cooperating with law enforcement,” the spokesman said. “As this remains an active investigation, we are unable to comment further at this time.”